February 18, 2014. 40% of all the international retail brands operate their outlets in Yekaterinburg. This makes the Urals' capital Russia's No. 3 in this respect, preceded by Moscow, where 94% of all the international retail brands are available, and Saint Petersburg, with 54%. The list of Russia's Top 5 also comprises Krasnodar (33%) and Rostov-on-Don (32%), Store of Stores reports.

This year's rating isn't strikingly different from last year's one, which has to do with a very small increase in the supply of good quality shopping space last year and therefore a decline in the retailers' efforts to enter new markets. On the whole, international brands set up 2.3 times fewer stores last year than the year before that.

The rating data are the proof that international retail enters non-capital federal constituencies as more good quality shopping malls get opened there. The cities whose real estate market does not get complemented with quality shopping space keep lagging behind and are losing their positions in the rating. These are Perm, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Tyumen, Kemerovo, Tomsk, and Novokuznetsk.